TALLAHASSEE — After four consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, Florida State is sitting home this spring watching the other in-state schools still in the hunt for a national title.

Although Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton is disappointed to be a spectator, he’s excited for former Seminoles assistant coach Andy Enfield taking upstart Florida Gulf Coast into the round of 16 against longtime archrival Florida on Friday. Hamilton’s former team, Miami, was also in the tournament before losing Thursday night to Marquette.

“It’s good for the state of college basketball in the state,” Hamilton said Thursday. “I know how they felt when they were watching us.”

Just a year after winning its first Atlantic Coast Conference championship with a team featuring half a dozen seniors, the Seminoles struggled all season on the way to an 18-16 record.

“You’re going to have a year when you have to regroup,” Hamilton said Thursday. “That’s the challenging part, what motivates you to come back and get right back in that national spotlight.”

Hamilton needs to find a replacement for scoring leader Michael Snaer, but otherwise has everyone back from a team that finished 18-16 after their opening-round NIT loss to Louisiana Tech. The Seminoles didn’t defeat a top tier team until late-season home-court victories over Virginia and North Carolina State.

Florida State was eliminated from the ACC tournament by North Carolina and saw its season end four days later with an NIT loss to Louisiana Tech. The Seminoles had a tough time on their home floor, too, losing to South Alabama and Mercer.

“That’s part of what we go through,” Hamilton said. “This is kind of our regrouping year.”

Snaer leaves as the school’s eighth leading scorer and a legacy of a half dozen game-winning shots in the final seconds, including four this season that enabled the Seminoles to eke out a winning record for an eighth straight year.

“Overall, we built the foundation that I think we can stand on,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said Thursday that his young team will be right back in the thick of things next year with four experienced seniors available to pick up the slack created by Snaer’s departure.

Okaro White and Terrance Shannon, a pair of 6-foot-8 forwards, return along with 6-11 center Kiel Turpin and shooting guard Ian Miller, who limped through his junior season with a bad ankle. Shannon also missed a major portion of the season with a neck injury suffered in mid-January.

“Okaro and Michael had to carry the load and those were heavy loads,” Hamilton said about the only two who averaged in double figures. “I’ve always tried to have the veterans carry the load.”

But injuries to Shannon, Miller and freshman Devon Bookert kept Hamilton from getting a cohesive unit onto the court for much of the season, clearing the way for two other freshmen — Aaron Thomas and Montay Brandon — to earn playing time.

Bookert, however, healed sufficiently to be a factor down the stretch, taking charge of the team’s point guard responsibilities.

“I’m excited about moving forward with the nucleus we have and the two guys we have already signed,” Hamilton said.

The incoming freshmen are 6-9 Jarquez Smith from Jones County (Ga.) High School and 6-4 shooting guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes, reportedly as deadly a shooter as his dad, former Seminole Tharon Mayes.

Highly recruited Andrew Wiggins, whose parents both starred at Florida State, is also being courted by the school although he has not made a decision about where to enroll.